Bah

Black Friday be damned. DoJ says we can get our money back, and now there's an email from Full Tilt saying "they are working on it" (yeah, I'm paraphrasing).

So much for my hobby. Anyone else have a fun hobby they can recommend?

Back to Vegas....Day 0 and 1

Hello dear readers. I'm back for a few posts about the recent trip to Vegas! This was the yearly trip around the PLO8 events at the WSOP, Binion's, and the Golden Nugget. I was also excited to play at the new room (at the Aria) as I had yet to see it.

Headed out with my buddy Boats on the Sunday night flight. Lots of folks in town, including The German. We got in and checked in pretty late and went out to meet up with some folks who were trying to get a mixed game going at Caesars. I hadn't had dinner so we hit the food court. Then we got a call about the mixed game at the IP where we were staying. It was sick. All kinds of Donk games and 3/6 limit. Double flop O8. 3-2-1 Omaha hi where there are 3 flops, 2 turns, and a river. Badugi. Baduci. 4-card Crazy Pineapple with an Ocean (discarding 1 after the flop and turn, with a 6th board card - the Ocean). I was in!

It turned out that I should have slept. I dropped $87 in about 2 hours. It would turn out to be my only losing cash session for the week. But it was fun.

Went up and slept for about 4 hours. Got up and headed back while Boats kept sleeping. And before you ask, Jodi, we had 2 queen beds. Don't get all excited.

The game was still running. Some of the same players were still there! I had a chance to make some cash back! And I did. I played for about 2 more hours and when the game finally broke at 10:30 I was up $79.

I called Pred to find out what was going on for the Binion's Poker Classic that day. PLO8 $210 buyin. I was hoping to cash big enough to play the WSOP $1500 the next day. I ran up and woke up Boats, and Pred picked us up and we headed downtown.

Last year, if you remember, I min-cashed in this event for $305. The goal this year was to get to the Final Table at a minimum. I ran into an issue right away when I ran into a set with the nut low, where I had 2 pair and a nut low and got 1/4ered but not quite for stacks. The event is great and you start with $15k in chips. This knocked me down to about $7k, but the blind structure was great so I didn't have much to sweat. As we approached the first break, I managed to double up when my flopped wheel held up vs an all-in shove by AA6x. Uh, what did you think I had, sir? Got to $16k.

I then floated for a while again, not getting up or down much. At the second break I had $27k as I hit another double through in the last hand before the break. It seemed to be a trend.

Then we hit the middle levels and players started dropping like flies. I had a few good hands hold up and managed to chip up, but going into the 3rd break I had a big hand that I needed. It was the last hand again and I had Ad3dJhKs UTG and limped. A shorty raised from the CO and the button, SB and I smooth called. I had everyone covered. The flop was Qd 4d 9h. The SB checked. I checked. The UTG potted and was all in. The button smooth called and left himself with about 4k behind. The SB mucked and I had a decision. I had a the nut flush and backdoor straight and low draws. I decide that I better get the button in now so I re-potted. He insta-called and showed A 2 Q 9 for 2 pair. The UTG player showed AA3J. The turn was a T to give me some more outs but the river was a beautiful 8d. I scooped the pot and counted down, having $105k. I was definitely the chip leader with about 70 players left. I headed to dinner with Boats, who had just busted. Pred was out too, as were a few of the other guys we had come in with.

Coming back from dinner, there were quite a few other online players left, and I got to meet and chat with a few folks. I ran the stack up to $240k at the 3/6k blind level so I was feeling pretty good. I was able to start using the big stack to put pressure on folks as we approached the money bubble. I showed down one hand with a few online folks that was AhKhQhJs after an UTG pot raise and had a few eyebrows raise. Just setting them up for later....

The button was starting to raise 2 of every three when I was the BB. He was at about $160k and didn't want too much resistance. I finally re-potted with AQQ6 and he went into the tank. He had seen my AKQJ hand and really struggled. It was nice to see that I had folks off-balance.

I knocked a few more folks out and got up over $300k. Folks were trying to pay off 21 so that we could quit hand-for-hand but there were holdouts that said no. I'm always for a deal that keeps us moving, but such is life.

Finally, we got down to the money and I was feeling good. I kept pressure on the mid-stacks and only went after the shorties with premium hands. Things were looking good. We went through a few more hand-for-hand times when we moved up the pay scale. And then, we were finally at the final table! I'd made it!

When we redrew for seats I asked the TD to make an even chop suggestion as we were all pretty close in stacks. There were two guys with less than $100k but the rest of us were really tight at $300kish each. Two players didn't want to talk deal, even though we would have all made better than 4th place money, but such is life.

We busted the 2 shorties, and still everyone had between $270k and $420k when I asked for the TD to stop the clock to negotiate. I asked for a chip chop count and no one seemed to think it was a bad idea. TD went off and came back. The short stack would get $2300 (the next payout was $1555) and the big stack would get $4300. Not a bad deal. Then the shortie started complaining, but I couldn't hear him. He finally said "no deal" and we played on. Afterword, I found out that he wanted $2500 minimum. I was getting $3k and would have gladly given up $100 and I think another guy would have. Then I find out that #2 wasn't happy with his $4k and wanted more. These guys were idiots, and I told them that. The blinds are at 20/40k and none of us has a stack of more than $420k. It's a crapshoot. But they are young and dumb. Bad combo.

Finally get it in with the #2 stack and I have him in bad shape on a flop of A 3 6. I have A248. He has A25Q. The 8 on the turn means I have him in bad shape and am getting 3/4 of the pot unless he hits a Q or a miracle 3-outer four on the river. Guess what he gets? The four rolls off for his wheel and I am out in 7th. He gets lippy and I say "That was bad karma, and it's gonna bite you in the ass". He says "I'm sorry that my decision for you to make less money and me more money has you upset". I laugh. I collect my payout, drop $30 in the dealer toke and have my buyin for tomorrow. It's around 3am and I grab a cab back to the IP.

Oh, and as a preview, I found out the next day that the lippy kid busts just after me. Bad karma, indeed, as his payout went from $4k to just under $1900. Serves him right. He also doesn't cash in any other events. Maybe he will learn next time to take the deal.

I never did catch up with The German, as my cell phone died Monday around dinner and he didn't head to Binion's, even knowing my good run there :) Maybe next year!

Come back later for more. Meanwhile, I'll cya at the tables.

To Rush or not To Rush?

That is the question...

Hello all. I've been away for a while. Real Life sometimes gets ahead of poker, imagine that. While I've been gone, however, Full Tilt has introduced "Rush Poker". I'm still not sure if it is a good thing or a bad thing.

Why not? After all, isn't that a Full Tilt add over there? Shouldn't you be shilling for them?

Well, I can say a few good things. It definitely fills a need for action junkies. If you can't get enough poker, then Rush is for you. If you want to multi-table, then you should be playing Rush Poker.

But there is a huge downside. If you have any leaks in your game, then Rush Poker is going to magnify them. If you are a slightly losing player, you are going to lose money that much faster. You will be playing a LOT more hands at Rush than you would even 3-tabling, if you multi-table Rush (the ads say 3-4 more hands than a "normal" table).

So why is this bad? Well, in my opinion, Rush is going to be where the fish run, as they just want action. Weekend warriors. Casual players (ie, me!) will also want to run there. But they are going to go broke fast. And the games will dry up. Sure, there might be more fish coming in, but with the way online poker is going now, there isn't a lot of extra money rolling in. People who were break-even players or small losers, are now becoming small losers or going broke.

I just don't think that the poker economy right now can sustain Rush Poker for very long. I think it is a great idea, and love to play it myself, as I can get in 500-600 hands a night if I 3-table for just 30 minutes. But I'm not a winner. I'm not even close. I'm leaking cash and I've played about 7000 hands at various limits.

If I were a much more serious player, Rush would be great. I could plug leaks, play a few thousand hands and see how my tweaks are working. But I don't think that the casual players or fish will last long, and I'm curious to see how long this "fad" lasts.

I will still play it, on and off, but they seem to play like the play money games at the limits that I frequent. And play money games do not equip one to play real money poker. I might get on and play Bingo once in a while, but my serious money will stay in regular ring games.

It's just one man's opinion. Feel free to flame away. Meanwhile, I'll cya at the (non-Rush) tables.

Running bad live

Hello readers. I'm trying to keep up, but have lapsed in my goal of a weekly update. I'll try to do better. So here we go.....

First, I finally made it to the new boat here in Cincinnati. I say "new", but it's been open for over 6 months. I just haven't made it yet. With MLK off, I decided to head down and try to take down the $125 buyin Bounty Tourney.

The new poker room is very nice. Roomy, comfortable chairs. The only negative was that the service in the tourney area was a bit slow, and I ended up going up to the host stand to order my lunch.

On to the tourney. It took me a while to get things going. At the first break (80 mins in) I was doing okay, I had about 7200 chips after starting with 6k. I hadn't busted anyone for a bounty, yet. The most interesting hand of the day was just at the break. I got up to leave after folding on the button with one limper (I had 9-6off) when the small blind shoved all in. Then the big blind re-shipped. What? The limper then smooth-called. SB had J-4 off and thought he could just chase the rest out with his all-in (bad idea). The BB woke up with KK, and the limper had AA. AA holds and he gets 2 bounties. Holy cow!

Coming out of the break I finally started to gain some momentum. I smooth called a 2.5xBB raise on the button with 55 and was happy with the 5 8 J flop. Even better when the raiser bets into you! I raised, he shipped, and I called. If he has JJ I'm in trouble, but nope. A J and he's drawing thin. I had him covered and thus my first bounty! A few orbits later I have 77 in the CO. UTG raises 3x. Player to my immediate right reraises. I decide I'm in bad shape and muck. SB and BB muck. UTG calls. Flop is J 7 4. Crap! UTG checks. Other guy ships and UTG snap calls. Yep. JJ. other guy has 44. I would have had middle set and been crippled, but I manage to get out of the way.

Then I start running people over. I bust the next guy with KK vs QJ SOOOOTed (why do people shove with these hands?) when he still had at least 15BBs. I guess people don't know how to play the medium stacks. Suddenly, I'm up to 40k in chips with about 20 mins to go to the 2nd break. I get up and walk around and no one else is even close. I've got a shot, but there's still a long way to go. Top 9 pay out of 93 runners, and we still have 40+ left. Although I now have about 7% of the chips, I need to be careful. I get up to get lunch ordered and hear people grumbling about my run of cards. Good information. I come back 10 mins later with 10 mins to the break and a few guys say "damn, we were hoping you were going to be gone through the break!". Heh. Nice to have an image. I start to use it, 3 betting and raising limpers in position and putting pressure. The blinds are still low at 400/800 with an average stack of 14k, so I'm not getting too out of control. I chip up a bit more and end up as the bank during the color-up and have 48k. The next biggest stack looks to be around 25k when I walk around during the break.

Coming back I'm card dead. I finally manage to bust a guy when I call his min-raise from the CO with AQ. Flop is A Q 3 and he insta-shoves. Then he starts staring at me. Hard. I decide he isn't giving off a false tell and call, he shows TT and no T on the turn or river (or runner-runner str8) and I have bounty #3.

Then the mother of all hands comes down. I haven't moved yet, and folks keep moving to my table. The guy to my immediate left is playing very aggressive. Finally we get into a confrontation when he raises UTG for the 4th time in my BB. I look down at A4 and decide to call, planning a stop-and-go on the flop. The flop is a beauty, A 4 J. I bet the pot and he ships. I think and finally call. He shows J 9 hearts. A 2nd heart on the turn makes me worried, but the river is a blank and I double through him. Now I've got over 90k in chips. There are 27 players left and I have 1/6th of the chips in play. I'll have to get really unlucky or stupid to not get ITM.

The next hand I'm in the SB and the guy I just crippled says "I'm all in" out of turn. He's POed. The dealer warns him that he's out of turn. Woman in MP then states she's all in. It folds to me. I know the BB is calling with anything, and I find QQ. I ask for a count and MP woman has just over 14k. I call. She shows TT, BB shows rags (not sure what, but I think he had 7-4 off). I'm happy until the flop comes T T 6. Flopped quads! GAH!!! What's horrible is this is the 2nd time she has hit quads at the table, earlier she had turned quad 4s to bust a player. No biggie, I count off the 14k and I still have 80k-ish. No reason to panic. I bust another micro-stack when he shoves from EP and the blinds are at 1500-3000 with a 500 ante. He has 4500 and I'm in the BB. I don't even look at my hand with my stack before calling when it is folded to me. He has A-T and I have J-6. 6 on the flop and he can't connect. I get luck and get bounty #4.

Then, disaster. Another short stack starts shoving that is 2 to my right. He's chippping up with 2000-4000 blinds and a 500 ante. I still have about 76k with just under 20 players. I'm the only player that has an M above 10 so I can still make some moves that others can't. Mr Shorty shoves on my SB, and I look down to find the ladies again. I ask for a count. He counts it down and says "Oh, I have 36,000. I didn't think I had that much." Crap. That means his range is a LOT bigger here and I call. He tables A-J. Flop is great with 2 5 7. 8 on the turn. And then, of course, A on the river. I basically swap stacks with him. I hate this, as if he had realized how many chips he had, he would have raised PF, and I could have shoved him off on the flop. The guy wasn't a bad player at all, and would have been capable of folding. I hate it when players make this kind of mistake and then end up getting lucky. Such is life.

A few more orbits and we are still at 2000-4000 with a 500 ante and 14 players left. I look down at KhJh UTG and look at my chips. I have 32000 left and decide it is all-in or fold time. Not a premium hand, but we are 7-handed and I like being first in here. Unfortunately, quads woman has JJ. I joke saying "well, at least I have your quads blocked!" and she laughs. No K, but the case J comes on the river just to make a point. And just like that I'm out. 14th place.

I'm happy with how I played, and will head back sometime soon, I hope. The Hollywood Poker Open is coming up in March, and I definitely want to play in at least 1 event there.

Next time I'll have to talk about Full Tilt's new Rush Poker. In the meantime, I'll cya at the tables.

Why not to play on Cake, continued

Wow, I thought this was over. I was done with Cake, so I transferred my cash to someone else and he shipped to me on Full Tilt. Now he just tried to cashout...and here is the response from Cake....

Hello XXXXXXXX,

Please be advised that we will not be able to process your current withdrawal request as the funds in question were derived from an inter-player transfer. Transfers are for the funding of friends and families accounts who would not otherwise be able to play. They are not meant as a method to re-pay debts or cashout funds for other players who wish to circumvent the cashout process. The funds must be transferred back to the account of origin in order to be cashed out. Sorry for any inconvenience.


Kind Regards,
CakePoker Cashier Department

"Circumvent the cashout process"? Seriously. If you would like to make your cashout process SOMETHING REASONABLE, you know, like other sites, maybe people wouldn't try to "Circumvent the cashout process".

What a crock. I guess I'm stuck back there until I can run my roll up to $500. I'm not gonna re-deposit and pay a 5% fee. I'm tempted to sit down HU with the guy and lose it all, just so he can cashout (or I can) and we can just re-ship somewhere else. That would be less than the rake....so maybe I'm onto something.

Or maybe Cake could get their heads out of their asses and let people cashout at the same levels that they allow deposits. What a novel concept! I can deposit in $50 increments and cashout in $50 increments! Not 10X!

Gah. I had another post in me as I hit the Hollywood today. Now I can't get past this crap.

I'll cya at the tables.

Why NOT to play at Cake

Welcome back, friends. Today's topic: Why NOT to play on Cake Poker. What? A negative post about a poker site? Look back. This is a first, so you know it has to be a doozy.

Cake is trying to compete with the "big boys" (Party, Stars, Tilt, and that AB/UB monster). Therefore, they are trying to offer better "perks" to get you to switch. That sounds great! I'd love to get some other site into the mix, and what a better way than to offer up rakeback (33% instead of 27%!) and bonuses (110%)! I'm in!!

Issue #1 - the "International Transaction". What? You can't set up a US Bank account and now I have to pay 5% juice to the credit card company ? Seriously?

Issue #2 - the "rakeback account" only receives points at HALF (that's right, HALF) of the rate of a non-rakeback account. Ummm...why? I asked your customer service and they had no answer. I get to release my rake at HALF the rate of everyone else for a lousy 6% extra RB? It's going to take me 2 YEARS to get my bonus cleared. No thanks.

Issue #3 - the "$500 rule". So let's get this straight...I have to pay 5% to my CC company to load up, and then I can only cash out via check (the only option available to US players, might I add) when I have $500 or more? Really?

Three strikes and you're out! Why would anyone play here? There are never any games big enough to make the rakeback worth it for non-HE players. Not to mention that they have spots for Stud and Stud8 with NO GAMES.

Sorry Cake, not everyone is a HE junkie. GL with the business. I will no longer be giving you mine.

So, if you play on any of the other big names, I'll cya at the tables.

If you play on Cake, GLWT. I won't ever again.
Welcome back, friends. Today's topic: Why NOT to play on Cake Poker. What? A negative post about a poker site? Look back. This is a first, so you know it has to be a doozy.

Cake is trying to compete with the "big boys" (Party, Stars, Tilt, and that AB/UB monster). Therefore, they are trying to offer better "perks" to get you to switch. That sounds great! I'd love to get some other site into the mix, and what a better way than to offer up rakeback (33% instead of 27%!) and bonuses (110%)! I'm in!!

Issue #1 - the "International Transaction". What? You can't set up a US Bank account and now I have to pay 5% juice to the credit card company ? Seriously?

Issue #2 - the "rakeback account" only receives points at HALF (that's right, HALF) of the rate of a non-rakeback account. Ummm...why? I asked your customer service and they had no answer. I get to release my rake at HALF the rate of everyone else for a lousy 6% extra RB? It's going to take me 2 YEARS to get my bonus cleared. No thanks.

Issue #3 - the "$500 rule". So let's get this straight...I have to pay 5% to my CC company to load up, and then I can only cash out via check (the only option available to US players, might I add) when I have $500 or more? Really?

Three strikes and you're out! Why would anyone play here? There are never any games big enough to make the rakeback worth it for non-HE players. Not to mention that they have spots for Stud and Stud8 with NO GAMES.

Sorry Cake, not everyone is a HE junkie. GL with the business. I will no longer be giving you mine.

So, if you play on any of the other big names, I'll cya at the tables.

If you play on Cake, GLWT. I won't ever again.

Rumbling, Grumbling and 2010 goals....

Okay, so I've neglected you all for too long. I didn't know I had that much of a following, but the German called me out. I'll try to do a post a week here for a while. Let's see how it goes.

Today's topic is my 2009 year. Let's look back and see how I did, shall we? I don't play anywhere near enough for anything here to be statistically significant, but we can at least review....

MTT ROI +58%. HELLO! I played 78 total MTTs for the the year and cashed in 22. Total ITM of 28.2%. This tells me two things. I should play MORE MTTs this year, and I tend to do well, getting deep. Breaking it down, I played in the Stars PLO8 $10 rebuy and was HOT. 198.9% ROI just in rebuys. I managed to win this (OPR says 2nd, but I took 1st in the chop with a HUGE chip lead) I guess we know what IF will be looking at for next year. Variance was good to me here!

SnGs ROI -8.3% BLEH! 34.6% ITM here, and a decent distribution ,with 61 wins, 40 2nds, and 33 3rds out of 382 games. The issue here is that I had a SERIOUSLY bad run at the end of the year in the 16 PLO8 SnGs on Stars, resulting in a -19.2% ROI in those for the year, and that was my major tourney with 137 games. Compare that to my 12.73% ROI in the 6.5s and we can most likely call that variance. I'd be a bit more worried if I hit 1000 of each and had that number in the 16s. This will be a focus for the year again.

Cash. This is a slippery thing to calculate ROI in. I know people who do it all kinds of ways. I personally take the cash I put in play, subtract the cash out, and then divide that by the total cash put into play. I have a -6% ROI for 2009 in 23057 hands. But overall, I have a big loss here. If I use my End-of-year Bankroll in the denominator (instead of cash into play) it drops to a - 76.8% ROI. Ugly. I just don't play a good cash game. Putting it into bb/100, i had a rate of -9.52bb/100 hands. Not. Good.

So I have 2 things I could do. I could just drop cash altogether, and focus on MTT and SnG play, as this is where I seem to do well. As a preview for 2010, I'm not too far in and I have only played a few cash sessions, and I'm already -4.6% for the year (by my calc). I have yet to cash in an MTT, 0/3 and have a +3.6% ROI in 39 SnGs. Or, I could decide to sit down and work on the cash game, as it is easier to get in and out of those.

In fact, looking at my cash play, that might be my biggest leak. I play short sessions, and don't spend the time being patient. Looking now at my stats for 2009, I was putting money in the pot voluntarily (VPIP) 23.1% of the time. My preflop raises were going in at 9.9%. I am a bit loose (GO FIGURE!) and need to tighten up my starting requirements. I need to increase my PFR%. I was a bit lower in full ring (22.8/9.9) versus 6-max (24/8.6). I need to get the PFR up in 6-max and the VPIP down in full ring. But my biggest leak, by far, is my aggression. I'm weak as hell. I should have a PFR of 16-17% if I'm going to play a VPIP of 18-20%%. My postflop aggression (the times I made an "aggressive move", such as 3-betting or check-raising) was horrible, at 26.1%. this needs to be more like 33-36%. I also was a calling station, going to 34.6% of showdowns. My % of showdown wins was okay, at 50%, but my win rate would be positive if I would just throw those losers into the muck without calling and "being the sherriff". By mucking, and seeing 25% of the showdowns, I'd make a huge impact.

So, I'm still not sure. I was going to bonus chase on Cake, and needed to play cash to do that, but I'm done with Cake (next weeks topic!). So for now, I'm going to play some MTTs and SnGs on Stars and Full Tilt, and maybe some cash to help speed the release of my EOY Iron Man bonus on Tilt. So look for the Illinifan there.

I'll cya at the tables.